It earned an overall score of 18.7 out of 100, thereby registering a 1.2-point gain, or a seven percentage points change.

According to the Lowry Institute, the country performs best in the diplomatic influence measure, placing eighth. It is the result of its proactive diplomatic outreach with a diverse set of partners. Its ranking for this measure improved by one place this year.

“Vietnam’s biggest improvement in 2024 was in resilience and diplomatic influence, rising by one rank in each of these measures,” it noted.

The Lowy Institute revealed that Vietnam exerts greater influence in the region than expected given its available resources, as indicated by the country’s positive power gap score, which remained steady in the latest index.

The United States topped the rankings with 81.7 points, followed by China with 72.7 points, India with 39.1 points, Japan with 38.9 points, and Australia with 31.9 points.

Originally launched in 2018, the Asia Power Index measures eight spheres, including diplomatic influence, cultural influence, future resources, economic relationships, military capability, economic capability, resilience, and defence networks.

VOV